Oakland: Burglary suspect shot by security officer charged

OAKLAND -- A man shot by a private security officer last week who caught him with items stolen from a home has been charged with residential burglary, authorities said Wednesday.

Larry C. Ward, 18, who was free on $300,000 bail in a 2013 robbery case when he was shot Feb. 13 after the security officer said Ward tried to attack him with a screwdriver, was also charged with two enhancement clauses. One is committing the burglary while on bail and the other is use of a deadly weapon in the confrontation with the security officer.

Police said Ward, of Oakland, and another man still being sought had burglarized a home on Fruitvale Avenue and took the items to the side of a home on Harding Way near where they had parked a car. Officer Mike Troupe said Ward had a pry bar with a screwdriver apparatus that had been used in the burglary.

The 28-year-old security officer, an employee of Security Code 3 of San Jose, which had been hired by neighborhood residents for patrols, happened upon the suspects at the Harding Way home about noon.

One suspect drove off in a car that was recovered later in Dimond Park. Ward fought briefly with the officer, who tried unsuccessfully to detain him with pepper spray, before running off, police said. The officer got into his car and began following Ward, eventually confronting the suspect again at a house in the 4000 block of Waterhouse Road.

The officer told investigators he shot Ward in the leg when Ward came at him with the pry bar/screwdriver.

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Authorities said Ward was out on bail in a robbery case from Oct. 19, when five people attending a house party on Skyline Boulevard had items taken at gunpoint while they were outside the home. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

Authorities also confirmed that in August 2011, when Ward was 16, he was shot several times by a gunman who opened fire on a car he was driving in the 300 block of Fifth Street, near Jack London Square. Two other people in the car were not injured, and no arrests were made. Police said then they thought the shooting was gang-related. Ward is now being held at Santa Rita Jail, but his bail amount was unavailable.